The LSU volleyball team looked dominant in Sunday’s match against Mississippi State after dropping its first match of the weekend to Texas A&M on Friday
The Tigers (10-13) put together a complete performance on Sunday, trailing only once in their sweep of Mississippi State (4-18).
LSU controlled the game defensively, picking up 9 blocks and holding the Bulldogs to a .035 hitting clip.
The Tigers had four different players with at least 11 digs, and junior middle blocker Desiree Elliott led the Tigers with seven blocks.
“I thought our back court did a really nice job,” said LSU coach Fran Flory. “… Overall, a very balanced, very solid effort.”
The Tigers were also balanced offensively. Elliott, senior outside hitter Madie Jones and sophomore outside hitter Helen Boyle combined for 32 kills.
Jones paced LSU with 14 kills and a .429 hitting clip.
Flory used Sunday’s match as an opportunity to give players with relatively little playing time this season some experience.
Freshman middle blocker Khourtni Fears sat out, giving sophomore middle blocker Marissa Maas some time on the court. Maas sat out for three weeks after suffering a concussion.
“We need [Maas] to get some experience,” Flory said. “She needed a chance to see if she can play her way into the lineup in a match.”
The third set saw freshman defensive specialist Haley Smith replace senior Meghan Mannari at the libero position.
Coaches and teammates agreed that the Tigers didn’t miss a beat after the switch.
“A great job for Haley,” Jones said. “She really stepped up and did a great job playing the libero role.”
LSU went into the match coming off of a four-set loss to new Southeastern Conference foe and Western Division leading Texas A&M (16-5).
After splitting the first two sets, the Aggies came out of the locker room and crushed the Tigers in the third and fourth sets 25-11 and 25-16 respectively.
“[Texas A&M] just turned it on,” Elliott said. “They served tougher. They ran their offense faster, and since we started off slow, we couldn’t catch up to them by the end of the game.”
The Aggies were one of the only teams that were able to slow down Jones, holding her to a season low nine kills and a .049 hitting clip.
On the contrary, Elliott put together a dominant individual performance, leading the Tigers with 22 kills and a .390 hitting clip.
After this weekend, LSU has a 6-8 conference record, putting them at fourth place in the SEC West, 3.5 games behind leaders Texas A&M and Arkansas.
